Above is a picture I took of Joe being introduced to the crowd. I rather enjoyed the player introductions this year, as they had the Rebirth Brass Band playing live throughout. A nice, New Orleans-y touch.

9:00 - The game is a few minutes in now, and Kobe Bryant has already gone to the bench. I'm guessing his night is done, which is only fair considering his pinky is hurt. As a Hawks fan, I was sort of hoping he'd play a lot of minutes so he couldn't go on Tuesday.

6:45 - Chris Bosh is your early MVP candidate, as he has 8 points (4 dunks) in the early going to give the East an early 18-7 lead. I mentioned this yesterday, but I have a feeling the Eastern Conference players may take this game a little more seriously to protect their rep.

6:20 - The three Pistons, Rasheed Wallace, Chauncey Billups, and Rip Hamilton, all checked into the game at the same time. I am wondering where JJ will rank on the playing time list tonight. As a reserve, I don't expect him to get a ton of minutes, but I hope he isn't the last player off the bench (even though it doesn't matter). If he is to see significant time tonight, I will attribute it to two factors. 1) Doc Rivers wants to rest his two Celtics players, so Joe takes some minutes from Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, and 2) Doc still has a soft spot in his heart for Atlanta from his playing days. I can dream, can't I?

4:15 - There is kind of a lid on the basket right now. If the teams aren't scoring on dunks or layups, they are missing just about everything else. In other news, I find it incredible that Western coach Byron Scott hasn't put in Chris Paul yet.

2:10 - During a timeout, the Hornets dancers performed. Pretty sweet, right? Except it wasn't the Honeybees, it was the "Used to Bee's", comprised mostly of quinta- and sexta-generians. A-Team Dancers, I think you could take them.

1:00 - Still no JJ. Aarrgh. But I seem to recall this is how it went down last year and he still ended up doing just fine, so I won't fret too much. 30-23 Eastern Conference.